Butte County Sheriff Cory Honea said human remains recovered on Sunday included five bodies found at homes and one in a vehicle in the northern town of Paradise.

Former president Barack Obama has tweeted, saying he and wife Michelle were "heartbroken".Mr Obama also urged people to do what they can to help.

Michelle and I are heartbroken for everybody who's lost so much in California, and grateful for the heroism of the firefighters who've been risking their lives around the clock to save others. Please do what you can to help our fellow Americans in need."

He also attached a link to this article in the New York Times which gives advice on how to donate money to help the firefighters and the victims of the conflagration:

President Trump who has been away in France over the w/e was widely criticised for posting a Tweet on Saturday which tried to politicise the tragedy and threatened to cut off funding to the Californian firefighters and the victims they are trying to save.

Anyone familiar with the affected areas of Los Angeles in particular will already know that these latest fires are *not* happening in heavily wooded forest lands that could be affected one way or the other by logging. The fires are predominantly in rolling hills and grasslands, covered with low-lying shrub.

Re: 31 Dead In California Wildfires

President IGNORANT #)*#$# needs to die or be thrown in Guantanamo bay. I'm sorry but that's the truth. This is soooooo old.Please do not post news on this f)*#head again. He deserves no more attention. If I want to see his stupid face with this news I can open the newspaper or google news. He disrespects the lives of the people who died. The fire is news. His ignorant childish mind is not. I am unsubscribing to this thread and I tell you I have had it with this political junk. It's too frustrating having to explain simple common sense to people anymore

toucana, I suggest a far better use of your time is finding a political forum to post this stuff. There are other people out there that need this education. The people on this forum are educated enough to get it and from an environmental science perspective it really just pisses me off.

Re: 31 Dead In California Wildfires

The OP does touch on science issues of forest management and causative factors in wildfires. Members do want to keep informed on science policy and practice in the current government. And when science is ignored.

Re: 31 Dead In California Wildfires

toucana, I suggest a far better use of your time is finding a political forum to post this stuff. There are other people out there that need this education. The people on this forum are educated enough to get it and from an environmental science perspective it really just pisses me off.

I tend to write about Californian wildfires partly because I have three generations of relatives living in California, all of them within fire zones. Two of them, including the niece whose wedding I attended near Sacramento last year, were nearly burnt out of their new home near Santa Barbara by the Thomas Fire earlier this year. It's a subject with a certain personal resonance for me.

I have visited California with some regularity for the last 15 years. I visited San Diego for the first time in November 2003 while the very large Cedar fire was still burning and the historic shanty town of Julian was nearly destroyed. I waited anxiously through a long night in 2007 to find out whether my in-laws house in Chula Vista had been destroyed by the Harris Fire. I later had the experience in 2010 of watching a wildfire taking hold on the hills outside Santa Cruz near Aptos. (We happened to be staying with the family of the local sheriff who took charge of fighting it).

Thanks for the advice, but I intend to keep on doing exactly what I'm doing in terms of political news reports. Don't read my posts if they upset you that much.

Re: 31 Dead In California Wildfires

The issue of forest fires has been a big issue in the great white north this past year as well. I was even working on a site up in a remote location when we even had severe air problems due to smoke, couldn't take the boats out onto the lake (our only means of transportation) because of the water bombers and had to contemplate leaving because a large fire was moving closer. Another big one far to the south was threatening some big money cottages which I thought might have prompted some thought from the climate change deniers in the conservative party (but no such luck as near as I can tell). Of course it has political dimensions both because of impacts to forestry and pricey cottages and homes. And truth be told I still get a chuckle when the chump says something stupid - I think I might even miss him when he is gone. Kind of like missing that cooked up Toronto mayer when they finally got a semi reasonable one.